First Video Game Written In Ant

Presenting the world's first video game written in Ant. This is a cross-platform downhill skiing game in which you use the < and > keys to race down a dangerous ski slope. System requirements: Ant 1.6 and the Ant-Contrib library.

And yes, it's written in Ant.

How this came to be: Some co-workers and I were chatting today about some Ant features we learned about, in particular the very useful macrodef and import tags. Then it dawned on me that with the function-like behaviour that macrodef tags give us, we could do virtually anything. Heck, we could write a video game in Ant if we wanted to! My coworkers laughed at me.

Well, laugh no more, my friends. Below is a screenshot showing the first-ever Ant video game in action:



In the above screenshot, I have crashed into the trees on the right. As this is an Ant script, the bad news begins with "Build Failed".

Note: If you succeed in skiing through the entire course and arriving at the bottom of the mountain, there is a pretty end-game screen as your reward!

Simply copy the code below and fire up Ant using the command "ant -quiet". Note that you will need Ant 1.6 and the Ant-Contrib library.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!--
To start the game, type "ant -quiet". Requires Ant 1.6
and the Ant-Contrib Tasks [Jon Aquino 2005-02-24]
-->
<project name="ski" default="run" basedir=".">
  <taskdef resource="net/sf/antcontrib/antcontrib.properties"/>
  <taskdef name="for" classname="net.sf.antcontrib.logic.For"/>
  <typedef name="isgreaterthan" classname="net.sf.antcontrib.logic.condition.IsGreaterThan"/>
  <typedef name="islessthan" classname="net.sf.antcontrib.logic.condition.IsLessThan"/>
  <var name="skiier-position" value="5"/>
  <!-- Generated using random numbers from http://www.random.org.
       Make your own course up! [Jon Aquino 2005-02-25] -->
  <property name="course" value="1,0,1,2,1,2,3,2,3,4,3,4,5,4,3,4,3,2,3,4,3"/>
  <property name="course-width" value="13"/>
  <property name="skiier-width" value="7"/>
  <target name="run">
    <echo/>
    <echo message="Use the &lt; and &gt; keys to move left and right."/>
    <for list="${course}" param="tree-position">
      <sequential>
        <var name="tree-position" value="@{tree-position}"/>
        <update-clearances/>
        <check-crash/>
        <paint/>
        <get-input/>
      </sequential>
    </for>
    <success/>
  </target>
  <macrodef name="paint">
    <sequential>
      <!-- Graphics from http://www.chris.com/ascii/ [Jon Aquino 2005-02-24] -->
      <paint-line tree="              " skiier="+     +  "/>
      <paint-line tree="  /\         /\" skiier="\   O \ "/>
      <paint-line tree=" / \\  /\   /\\\" skiier="\_/|\_\"/>
      <paint-line tree="/   \\/ \\ /  \\\" skiier="  \\  "/>
      <paint-line tree="/    /   \/    \\\" skiier="\/'  "/>
      <paint-line tree="/   /    /      \\\" skiier="\\_ "/>
      <paint-line tree="/  /    /        \\\" skiier="-  "/>
    </sequential>
  </macrodef>
  <macrodef name="get-input">
    <sequential>
      <var name="input" unset="true"/>
      <input addproperty="input"/>
      <if><equals arg1="${input}" arg2=","/>
      <then><subtract a="${skiier-position}" b="1" result="skiier-position"/></then>
      <elseif><equals arg1="${input}" arg2="."/>
      <then><add a="${skiier-position}" b="1" result="skiier-position"/></then></elseif></if>
    </sequential>
  </macrodef>
  <macrodef name="update-clearances">
    <sequential>
      <subtract a="${skiier-position}" b="${tree-position}" result="left-clearance"/>
      <add a="${tree-position}" b="${course-width}" result="right-clearance"/>
      <subtract a="${right-clearance}" b="${skiier-position}" result="right-clearance"/>
      <subtract a="${right-clearance}" b="${skiier-width}" result="right-clearance"/>
    </sequential>
  </macrodef>
  <macrodef name="paint-line">
    <attribute name="tree"/>
    <attribute name="skiier"/>
    <sequential>
      <spaces n="${tree-position}" result="left-margin"/>
      <spaces n="${left-clearance}" result="left-space"/>
      <spaces n="${right-clearance}" result="right-space"/>
      <echo message="${left-margin}@{tree}${left-space}@{skiier}${right-space}@{tree}"/>
    </sequential>
  </macrodef>
  <macrodef name="spaces">
    <attribute name="n"/>
    <attribute name="result"/>
    <sequential>
      <math result="2n" operation="*" operand1="@{n}" operand2="2" datatype="int"/>
      <var name="@{result}" unset="true"/>
      <propertyregex
              property="@{result}"
              input="                                 "
              regexp="( {${2n}}).*"
              select="\1"/>
    </sequential>
  </macrodef>
  <macrodef name="add">
    <attribute name="a"/>
    <attribute name="b"/>
    <attribute name="result" default="result"/>
    <sequential>
      <math result="@{result}" operation="+" operand1="@{a}" operand2="@{b}" datatype="int"/>
    </sequential>
  </macrodef>
  <macrodef name="subtract">
    <attribute name="a"/>
    <attribute name="b"/>
    <attribute name="result" default="result"/>
    <sequential>
      <add a="@{a}" b="-@{b}" result="@{result}"/>
    </sequential>
  </macrodef>
  <macrodef name="check-crash">
    <sequential>
      <if><islessthan arg1="${left-clearance}" arg2="0"/>
            <then><die/></then></if>
      <if><islessthan arg1="${right-clearance}" arg2="0"/>
            <then><die/></then></if>
    </sequential>
  </macrodef>
  <macrodef name="die">
    <sequential>
      <!-- Sound effects from http://collection.nlc-bnc.ca/100/200/300/ktaylor/kaboom-revised/bzzurkk.htm [Jon Aquino 2005-02-25] -->
      <fail message=" ***  BOINK! POINK! THUMP! You smashed into a tree and died.  ***"/>
    </sequential>
  </macrodef>
  <macrodef name="success">
    <sequential>
      <!-- Graphics from http://www.chris.com/ascii/ [Jon Aquino 2005-02-24] -->
      <echo message="Hooray! Hooray! You are the champion! Congratulations!"/>
      <echo message="             *"/>
      <echo message="             XX"/>
      <echo message="            MMMMM"/>
      <echo message="            //(00 "/>
      <echo message="         .:....."/>
      <echo message="       .:::::::::"/>
      <echo message="      :: %%%%%% ::."/>
      <echo message="     ::  ::::::  :::::::I)"/>
      <echo message="     (%  :::::          |"/>
      <echo message="     /   |  /______     |"/>
      <echo message="    /    |______   ))   |"/>
      <echo message="   /            / //    |"/>
      <echo message="  /            / //     |"/>
      <echo message=" /            / //      |"/>
      <echo message="*            ZZZZ       *"/>
      <echo message="   _________ZZZZZZ_________//_//"/>
    </sequential>
  </macrodef>
</project>

Here is a complete picture of a successful ski run:



And Ant gives us a nice report of the time it took to reach the bottom of the slope:

    BUILD SUCCESSFUL
    Total time: 17 seconds